Who Were the Sea Peoples?

...a few steps to the left a human horror is unfolding. If it weren't for the failing levees, New Orleans would have been completely fine, but they are in real trouble instead. The first thing, and I'm sure I'll get yelled at for this, is to stop trying to stop looting. Police should be on dinghies getting folks out of town instead of chasing down some dehydrated unfortunates carrying loaves of bread. The food is going to rot and the sneakers are going to be full of mold shortly. This is the last chance for that wealth to be used or it will be wasted. There is no returning it to its rightful owner. How the hell is making a looter drop a pile of clothes in muck going to help anyone anyway? This disaster is a national one. We are going to be paying for this. All of us. Whether we are paying for "legitimate" food for these people or paying back those businesses later, we are still going to be paying for it. So let those directly suffering take care of their needs now...

A few months ago I was in a hurry to get across country but picked the Mississippi Gulf Coast as my one meandering side trip. From Gulfport east till 90 meets the 10. Beautiful and idyllic. If you can imagine the most pastoral images of the old South mansions and their stately oaks but place them in an even gentler coastal setting that is what was lost to Hurricane Katrina. It was my second trip down there. I once stayed in Bay St. Louis and visited Pass Christian. I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that all those places are gone. It is painful.

Someone actually called me a "word whore" over this article , so it must be juicy. (I pointed out that since I don't get paid for my LRC articles, I'm at best a word slut.)

dark and stormy, with a high chance of drive-bys. Go see Forty-Year-Old Virgin . It's hilarious.

The NY Times reports that a traveler to Cuzco, Peru, visited some Inca ruins, and found that he couldn't slip his credit card between the huge stones of the anncient walls. Obviously, the problem was that he was using his Amex card. Because the Incas did build great stonewalls, but they didn't take American Express. (And just what was he trying to pay for by inserting his card in some ruins, anyway? Whatever it was, it must have run out after 500 years, or at least gone bad.)

After LSE, I'm thinking of spending some time as a multi-nucelate, acellular aggregate.

with my analysis of his views . After contemplating his complaints, I must admit that my speculating on the possible famine deaths in Afghanistan was a foolish undertaking. The commentator who chooses to address empirical matters in which he has no expertise puts himself at the mercy of "experts" among whom he has no sound basis for believing one rather than another, and typically winds up believing whichever authorities lend support to the position he wishes to support anyway. It is better to have no opinion about something than an unfounded one. So, yeah, I was guilty of that -- but Hanson predicted Afghanistan and Iraq would not be quagmires!